Detergents or cleaning agents or cosmetic agents mostly include scents that impart a pleasant odor to the agents. The scents in most cases mask the odor of the other ingredients, producing a positive odor impression on the consumer.
In the detergent sector in particular, scents are important components of the composition, because the laundry should have a pleasant and, if possible, also fresh smell both when wet and when dry. A fundamental problem faced in the use of scents is that these are more or less readily volatile substances, but that a long-lasting scent effect is nevertheless desirable. The desired persistence of the scent impression can barely be achieved especially with fragrances that represent fresh and light notes of perfume and evaporate particularly quickly because of their high vapor pressure.
Delayed scent release can occur, e.g., thanks to carrier-bound use of scents. A carrier-bound precursor form of a scent is also known as a “pro-fragrance” or scent storage substance. A possibility for the delayed release of scents is the use of so-called photoactivatable substances as pro-fragrances. The action of sunlight or another electromagnetic radiation source of a specific wavelength induces the breakage of a covalent bond in the pro-fragrance molecule, thereby releasing a scent.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,949,680 discloses the use of specific phenyl ketones or pyridyl ketones as photoactivatable substances that, in a photochemical fragmentation, release a terminal alkene as an active substance in the presence of light. The aforesaid active substance possesses, for example, a scent-imparting or antimicrobial activity that is first delayed by the photochemically induced decomposition and is released on a specific surface over a longer period of time.
WO 2009/118219 A1 discloses photoactivatable substances that enable the release of cyclic terpenes or cyclic terpenoids.
WO 2011/101180 discloses the use of specific ketones as photoactivatable substances that release an active substance in a photochemical fragmentation in the presence of light. Said active substance possesses, for example, a scent-imparting that is first delayed by the photochemically induced decomposition, and is released on a specific surface over a longer period of time.
The object of the present invention was to provide photoactivatable substances as pro-fragrances, which permit the delayed release of fragrance ketones, in particular various damascones.
Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with this background of the invention.